5 Reasons ‘The Wolverine’ Can Make Up for ‘X-Men Origins’

This summer, comic book fans and movie audiences have already been treated to two hit film adaptations featuring some of their favorite characters. In May, Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3 overcamea lukewarm fan reception (read our Iron Man 3 review) to gross over $1 billion worldwide, proving that the Marvel Cinematic Universe remains one of the elite blockbuster franchises.

Then, Warner Bros. and DC released the Superman reboot Man of Steel and brought the Last Son of Krypton back triumphantly (read our Man of Steel review) as that film has grossed $282 million domestically and $620 million worldwide (at the time of this writing).

Both of these movies also had an “event” feeling to them and with all the coverage the two blockbusters have received, it’s easy to forget that there’s still a third superhero movie this summer – and it’s right around the corner: 20th Century Fox’s The Wolverine.

It’s a situation similar to last summer where The Amazing Spider-Man had to compete with massive event films The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. Like that Spider-Man reboot, it seems as if The Wolverine isn’t as high on peoples’ most anticipated lists when compared to its competition. Even if the pre-release hype hasn’t reached a fever pitch, there are still plenty of reasons to be excited for the latest X-Men film.

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deadpool872 years ago

Its just hard for me to get excited about Fox comic book films because most of them are terrible. Daredevil and Elektra were awful, Fantastic Four 1&2 are terrible. X-Men 1 is good but for me it doesn’t hold up. X2 is definitely the best of the X films and the best superhero film by Fox. X3 is god awful and Origins Wolverine is a sloppy mess. First Class was really good but largely due to the great cast. I’ve set my expectations really low for this but surely it has to be better than Origins Wolverine. But Days of Future Past is a HUGE question mark for me. Weirdly enough, I think in some ways its a bigger question mark than Guardians of the Galaxy.

X-Men 1 was good, especially because it was the first of a kind, but the characters sabre tooth, toad and mystique don’t have 2 sentences altogether in the whole film… at least it set the stage for X-Men 2.

With The Wolverine (saw it yesterday) they have missed the target again and they have wasted another chance again. Of course it is better than the origins one, but which movie is not?

Days of Future Past HAS to be good because the cast is awesome, but while Brian Singer did Usual Suspects and X-Men 2, he also did Superman Returns… will see, fingers crossed…

On First Class, I do agree with you that the cast really made that film. Obviously it was better than The Last Stand and Origins, but I still thought the script was pretty weak. Granted, it didn’t rape any beloved characters like the previous two movies, but I still think it’s a pretty poorly constructed movie at times (especially the final third of the movie, which rushed the story WAY too much). I still like First Class, but I’d say it just gets the praise it gets because of the great cast and the fact that it was an improvemnt on the X men franchise.

So glad to hear someone agrees with me about X-Men: Origins. My impression was that it was a critical success, but I thought it was mediocre at best. I also agree that X2 was the best of the franchise — the opening Nightcrawler sequence, all by itself, was worth the admission price. X3, on the other hand, was a grievously lost opportunity.

I’d say it’s the weakest of the series, but I still enjoyed. In terms of dissapointment, you had to be the right fan to be dissapointed by that film. The way they treated Deadpool was terrible. However, at the time I had no idea who Deadpool was, so I didn’t think much of it.

I don’t think anyone can seriously blame Mr. Jackman (man, he looks ripped!) for the (many ) faults of Origins. The guy did his best with a bad lot. Still, there’s no denying that Fox have made an awful mess of this franchise and are now desperately trying to back peddle in the wake of the success of Marvel. Now that they have seen just how big these movies can be. The Xmen are a massive deal in the comic book world and have been for quite some time. So it takes real talent to produce the utter bum gravy they have delivered so far. Can Fox really blame us for being sceptical given their track record. The fans, movie goers, and Jackman himself deserve better. her’s hoping.

For me, the first two thirds of Origins were carried by Jackman. I thought the scenes with him and Sabertooth were great and he really did a great job showing the character become who he is in the original trilogy. The final thrid of the film, however, is where the script REALLY fell apart (with the exception of the Professor X cameo, that was awesome). The point is, Jackman does everything he can to give us a great Wolverine movie, but the script in Origins just didn’t deliver. I really do hope this movie is good, but it’s easy to think otherwise.

Yeah its at like 70% on RT right now. I’m excited. I’m not expecting like X2 quality here, or even First Class quality. I just want a smart action flick that’s better than Origins. Seriously I still remember walking out of that theater in 2009 with my face like I just bit into a lemon. That movie was a huuuuge let down.

Loved the first two films. I was let down by the Last Stand and origins but First Class placed my faith back into the X-Men franchise. Everything that made the first two X-Men films and First Class good are returning so I don’t see why I’d be worried for Days of Future Past.

I would say the most interesting aspect of the X-Men franchise is that there are way way way more recognizable characters in this series than any other comic. Essentially, Fox can create an X-Men universe akin to Disney’s MCU. There are so many routes that this series can go it is truly unbelievable. The X-Men universe can include various factions and other lesser-known mutants to create an expanded universe that will not get stale. The big question here is this: if they choose to create this sort of universe, will they reboot the entire franchise? To accomplish this, the answer is undoubtedly yes. Fox will have to pull a Warner Bros. and start from scratch after X-Men Days of Future Past. Then the brand can build to an ultimate payoff with arguably the best comic book villain Apocalypse like Marvel is building towards Thanos and DC is likely building towards Darkseid.

the wolverine is what it should have been called to begin with instead of the ridiculous title “origins”. the first two xmen films were barely good but fox has completely trashed the xmen universe with their last three marvel movie… the best thing this movie can hope for is that it is a good one shot movie.

The original X men is the reason why you have a Marvel cinematic universe in the first place (different companies, yeah, but that’s not the point). X men was the first great Marvel flick and really got Marvel comics started in the movie buisness. X men not only started Marvel’s big budget movies, but it brought bak the Superhero genre entirely (the last big superhero flick before was Batman and Robin, ugh).

As for X2, you’re talking about one of the most celebrated superhero movies of all time. I honestly don’t think there’s a top 10 superhero movie list out there that doesn’t include this one. Sorry dude, but you are part of one hell of a minority.

Hugh Jackman is perfect as Wolverine. I also though Liev Schreiber was a REALLY good Sabretooth. So those 2 alone are the prime reasons I still watch X-Men Origins and actually enjoy it a lot. It’s always Barakapool that kills the moment for me, but at least it’s near the end.

They haven’t been ashamed in telling us how hard they’ve been working to make this a quality show. Should that be enough to make me see a way to forgive their prior sloppy work? The old maxim ” the show must go on” keeps popping into my head every time I think about how much better the product could be if they’d taken more care, which would’ve meant more time and money spent on writing, preproduction, and the execution. Obviously money the studio strongly felt they couldn’t get back.

I also don’t quite fully buy into the premise that one could grow tired of living on and on unless circumstances made it impossible to avoid the pain and boredom of such a prospect. Perhaps that needs a better exploration than what has been given the character. Unless the man keeps losing his memories or can’t discipline himself to focus his energies in a way to make himself highly successful, then I can’t see the idea of wanting to be more mortal. Like I’ve written before humanity rarely has the foresight to start something and insure it’s maintenance and achievement beyond a generation. Dams, roads, bridges, and monuments don’t count.

The character of Wolverine has that opportunity to explore the possibility of that. I would think he would come around, seeing it as an imperative. In his world and in ours we are drawing ever closer to having conscious machines if we relegate multigenerational goals to such entities will we as a life form remain forever autonomous and free? Why would we do that? Because we simply don’t have the lifespans to ensure that persistent effort is exerted in realizing truly long term goals…

… people and websites should really stop overusing the word ‘reboot’. It seems that every time a director or studio wants to go in a different direction from what came before in the SAME film series continuity people starts calling it a ‘reboot’. I wonder then, what was Batman Begins if not a reboot of the Batman franchise

… and how is The Wolverine setting up a ‘shared’ universe, thus copying Marvel? All the X-Men films fit within the same universe, continuity issues aside (but the Marvel films have issues too!) that will hopefully be corrected in Days of Future Past. A post credit scene? X-Men: The Last Stand and the first Wolverine movie already had that. Not everything has to do with the Avengers you know…

I never really expected a lot from this movie for some reason (guess Fox has disappointed me too many times, kinda like the Final Fantasy franchise) but I’ll probably watch it anyway.

Hope it’s a crowd-pleaser in the end, but oddly enough I’m now more excited for X-Men: Days of Future Past. You can’t go wrong with Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen meeting James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, can you?

What I have seen of this film so far looks encouraging. It’s good that it is based on a classic story arc – the Origins film was a bad idea from the first thought, never mind the poor execution. The one thing that this film is going up against, however, is over saturation of the character. Wolverine is great and Hugh Jackman is terrific, but Fox has in my opinion already leaned a bit too heavily on that combination. Some burnout is inevitable. But hopefully, this film will be really good.

Overall, I am happy with the way that Fox is developing things right now. XM:FC, The Wolverine, Days of Future Past and the new Fantastic Four all seem positive at this point.

Okay, anyone, someone tell me how Origins was such a flop critically? I am not familiar with Wolverine’s Comic Book Origins nor have I read many standalone comics of his, but I thoroughly enjoyed Origins. I did not like what they did with Wade in the ending, but that movie had awesome combat scenes, fantastic acting, great dialogue, and a good storyline. Not one moment was I as heavily screwed over by accepting this new adaption.

I actually thought of Sabretooth being Logan’s brother to be a logical thing to do since it explains the close bond between both characters and how Logan always had Victor’s back.

And for those who didn’t know, Deadpool somehow regained his ability to talk in the end-scene credit of the movie, so his character can still be played out quite gladly in further sequels.

I thought that while the cast and acting were mostly fine, as a story it was just kind of a cluttered mess that was far too broad in scope. Also, the effects and some of the action had a very “unreal” look that to me undermined the grittiness that Wolverine should have, and I felt that the character would have been better off left more mysterious, i.e. without an exhaustive origin story. X1 and X2 were enough for me.

Honestly, I would have preferred an entire film of mostly just Jackman and Lynn Collins in the the Canadian wilderness, something more grounded and human (or mutant, I guess).

Origins was certainly not the worst comic book film by any means. But for me personally, not very good either.

I haven’t liked anything after X2 and if the Silver Samurai turns out to be a mech like it’s looking in the trailers this one will be on par to disappoint as well. I’ll be waiting for Netflix just in case

– “Warner Bros. and DC released the Superman reboot Man of Steel and brought the Last Son of Krypton back triumphantly as that film has grossed $620 million worldwide”. Here the mixed reception is not even mentioned and the box office numbers clearly establish a cause and effect – it was a triumph as the numbers said so.

That is poor objectivity imo… The reality is that MoS created as much, if not more, controversy than IM3 and the reviews were not at all unanimous (i.e. lack of character development, lack of heart, way too serious, overloaded action towards the end alla Transformers,…).

Both were flawed, but what is a sure thing is that IM3 came clearly on top with the figures at hand. The other sure thing is that Chris Agar liked MoS better than IM3 and his subconscious betrayed him when writing that.

Heh. In retrospect, I probably could have worded that paragraph a little differently. What I meant by “triumphantly” was that Man of Steel did bring the Superman film franchise “back” in terms of box office numbers. It set a new June opening weekend record and it’s done well worldwide. Everyone knew Iron Man 3 would be a big hit. Man of Steel was more of a risk due to the underperformance of Superman Returns. Man of Steel obviously did well enough to warrant a sequel, which is why I used “triumphantly” to describe WB’s success with restoring that character. I know that MoS was divisive as well.

While it’s true that I personally liked Man of Steel more than Iron Man 3, I still really enjoy the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I did refer to Marvel as one of the “elite blockbuster franchises” at the top as well. I’m a fan of superhero movies and I’m happy to see so many doing well.

First of all, thank you very much for taking the time to reply. It is refreshing!

I understand your point and I agree that it wouldn’t be fair to compare the box office numbers of Man of Steel and Iron Man 3, the same way that for instance it wouldn’t have been fair to compare the box office numbers of Iron Man 1 and Batman the Dark Night back in 2008 (i.e. new risky project vs. proven solid franchise).

That said and discounting that everyone knew Iron Man 3 would be a big hit, I am not so sure that everyone knew Iron Man 3 would make it to the top 5 and break the $1bn mark. I don’t think that achivement was assumed as a done deal. So basically in my mind each movie, at their different scale of expectations, had “similar” success despite both having mixed reviews. That’s why I thought those two paragrahps were a bit misleading by comparison.

Other than that, I’m also a fan of superhero movies and I am happy with the progress in both Marvel and DC camps. Btw, I also like this website very much.

PS – I wasn’t blown away by Iron Man 3, but you gotta give it to the Marvel guys. They surely know how to connect with the average moviegoer.

That is an opinion an it is fine, but the facts are the box office numbers and that both had mixed reviews.

Having that in mind, it is unfair to highlight IM3 and lukewarm in the first sentence and MoS and triumph in the second one. If triumph is defined by box office numbers, IM3 is also a triumph, and if we talk about reception, MoS also had its critics. That is the objective approach.

Personally I didn’t think that IM3 was particulary great, but MoS bored me towards the end…

Not to get into spoiler territory I just want to say that fox has breathed some life into the x-men franchise with the wolverine I still have to digest and ponder about whether I liked where they went with it and get comfortable with Wat they changed…